Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the oldest indigenous people of the Congo region of Africa.

[2] There are three distinct subgroups:[3] The Mbuti population live in the Ituri, a tropical rainforest covering about 63,000 km2 (24,000 square miles) of the north/northeast portion of the DRC.

Tropical disease is prevalent in the forests and can spread quickly, killing not only humans, but plants, and animals, the major source of food, as well.

At the start of the dry season, they leave the village to enter the forest and set up a series of camps.

Their animal diet can include crabs, shellfish, ants, larvae, snails, wild pigs, antelopes, monkeys, fish, and honey.

The vegetable component of their diet includes wild yams, berries, fruits, roots, leaves, and kola nuts.

[7] Food sources yielded by the forest are non-kweri animals for meat consumption, root plants, palm trees, and bananas;[5] and in some seasons, wild honey.

The kweri animals are thought to cause disease and disorder, especially to young children; restrictions are gradually relaxed as one ages.

There is no formal marriage ceremony: a couple are considered officially married when the groom presents his bride's parents with an antelope he alone has hunted and killed.

The sexual intercourse of married couples is regarded as an act entirely different from that of unmarried partners, for only in marriage may children be conceived.

[13] Bambuti societies have no ruling group or lineage, no overlying political organization, and little social structure.

Owing to their superior hunting ability, leaders eat more meat and fat and fewer carbohydrates than other men.

Issues are discussed and decisions are made by consensus at fire camps; men and women engage in the conversations equivalently.

After events such as death of an important person in the tribe, molimo is noisily celebrated to wake the forest, in the belief that if bad things are happening to its children, it must be asleep.

[citation needed] As with many Bambuti rituals, the time it takes to complete a molimo is not rigidly set; instead, it is determined by the mood of the group.

Food is collected from each hut to feed the molimo, and in the evening the ritual is accompanied by the men dancing and singing around the fire.

Due to deforestation, gold mining, and modern influences from plantations, agriculturalists, and efforts to conserve the forests, their food supply is threatened.

Haplogroup B-P7 has been observed most frequently in samples of some populations of pygmies 21% (10/47) Mbuti from Democratic Republic of the Congo.